West watch. Law.

Dupage 7 Lawyer's Gaffe Tickles Trial Spectators

A question for defense lawyer Terence Gillespie: Did you really mean "Elmo?" Isn't it that stuffed doll that talks when it's tickled?

In his impassioned opening statement to jurors in the DuPage 7 case Tuesday, Gillespie was trying to make a point about how law enforcement and the communications industry have changed since 1983, when police were investigating the brutal murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.

And Gillespie also wanted to take a shot at Special Prosecutor William Kunkle, who, in his opening statement, beamed computer-generated graphic images up on a screen to explain the tortured history of the 16-year-old case to jurors.

"They had none of these fancy Elmo jobs with moving pictures on the wall back then and laptop computers," Gillespie thundered while pointing to the prosecution table.

Spectators chuckled, wondering if he hadn't confused a furry toy with a Pentium.

Who's in, who's out: When they got the news that they would be barred from the courtroom during the DuPage 7 trial, Patricia and Thomas Nicarico--who had attended every pre-trial hearing over the last two years--were furious. "I'm at a loss for words," Thomas Nicarico said after Judge William Kelly ruled that the two would be treated like Rolando Cruz and every other witness in the case. (Witnesses are routinely prohibited from watching the proceedings so that their testimony won't be influenced by what they've already heard).

But on Tuesday--the first day of opening statements in the case against seven law enforcement officials accused of framing Cruz in the 1983 murder of their 10-year-old daughter, Jeanine--the Nicaricos were permitted to watch the action after all. Lead defense lawyer Terry Ekl asked the judge if they could at least just listen to the opening statements. Kunkle said he wouldn't mind, provided that they sat in the back of the courtroom so the jurors wouldn't see them.

Noticeably absent from the court room was attorney Lawrence Marshall--who led the arduous legal effort to free Cruz from Death Row and uncovered many of the allegations that are at the center of the prosecution's case against the seven men.

Marshall, like the Nicaricos, is on the witness list, although sources say he likely won't be called.

Part-time work: Ed Brennan, the retired head man of Sears, got a three-day job this week at the DuPage County courthouse, when he was selected to serve as one of 12 jurors to decide the guilt or innocence of Rahim Azizarab, a man accused of abducting his own son from a state child welfare employee.

Himself the father of six, Brennan, of Burr Ridge, listened attentively during opening arguments of the criminal trial before Judge George Bakalis. Prosecutors allege that Azizarab, who has been in a protracted battle with the Department of Children and Family Services to gain custody of his son, shoved the state employee aside during a supervised visit and fled with boy.